the telecaster kid Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 Well, I've been away. I was in Kentucky on a service project, and I saw some very cool things. First of all, everyone sit down. The guy who's house I was working on had some wood. What kind of wood? American Chestnut. The man's grandfather had had one of the last surviving trees, and the guy had a few log sections he had turned on a lathe into lamps. Yes, the stuff is extinct, it was very very cool. As a parting gift, he let me take some of his scrap oak, (I got a very cool looking piece,) and a black walnut log. Well, the log was pretty grungy looking, but I finally split it today, and the grain is gorgeous. I just discovered my camera is not in it's place while I was typing, so I can't get the pics just yet. You'll have to trust that it's nice looking for now. I think I can get 3 or four fender style neck blanks out of it. This is what leads me to my next project. The man in Kentucky also let me take some of the junk he had lying around, and some shotgun shell ends. I have a piece of walnut my shop teacher let me take big enough for a small body, and I have a figured/spalted maple top set that I got off ebay from a while ago. I was thinking of doing a picollo guitar. It would look something like this. That's a short (not sure what length) scale, with the top three strings doubled. Any input? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToddW Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 Ummm, what do shotgun shell ends have to do with a guitar? Walnut and gun stocks go together, but shell ends? Anyway, this sounds like a cool idea, a nine string. I'll watch to see how it goes. Todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the telecaster kid Posted August 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 Haha, the shotgun shell ends are knobs. For A pickguard I'm thinking of setting in a circular saw blade, and the tailpiece is a hinge. Anyway, I found my camera. Here's the outside of the logs. and here's the grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted August 4, 2008 Report Share Posted August 4, 2008 The grain is nice, but let's see a shot of the end....the center where you split it looks like it has a bit of pith in it, which is weak (so you don't want it in a neck). If those logs have the center of the branch/tree in the middle, like this --> ((((*)))) then it may not be the best choice for a neck. That's a GREAT idea....shotgun shell endcaps for knobs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the telecaster kid Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 The grain is nice, but let's see a shot of the end....the center where you split it looks like it has a bit of pith in it, which is weak (so you don't want it in a neck). If those logs have the center of the branch/tree in the middle, like this --> ((((*)))) then it may not be the best choice for a neck. That's a GREAT idea....shotgun shell endcaps for knobs! The log i split went straight down the middle, this is what the end looks like. and the other one What do you suggest I do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted August 5, 2008 Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 I don't know how wide that log is, but it doesn't look suitable to me. If you look at where the grain "radiates" from, you can see how much quartersawn wood you can get out of that... IF you want it to be quartersawn... and it's already checked on the end there. I would hesitate to use it because I don't know how deep those cracks go. That said, I've always used stable blanks that I've bought already planed. I've never resawn wood or anything. On a side note... the shotgun shell endcaps for knobs is a great idea. Are you going to plug them with wood? They're hollow, I don't see how you could get them to stick on a pot shaft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the telecaster kid Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 (edited) I don't know how wide that log is, but it doesn't look suitable to me. If you look at where the grain "radiates" from, you can see how much quartersawn wood you can get out of that... IF you want it to be quartersawn... and it's already checked on the end there. I would hesitate to use it because I don't know how deep those cracks go. That said, I've always used stable blanks that I've bought already planed. I've never resawn wood or anything. On a side note... the shotgun shell endcaps for knobs is a great idea. Are you going to plug them with wood? They're hollow, I don't see how you could get them to stick on a pot shaft. I'll probably plug the endcap with wood yeah. I say endcap because I've decided on going with one pickup, and one knob. I've also decided on a few other things. I'm going with the 9 string idea, probably a 23" scale. Also, I've figured out how I'm going to incorporate all the junk my Kentucky friend gave me. I'm going to use an old hinge as the tailpiece, and the coping saw handle/blade thing as a tremolo arm. The endcap, as I've said will be the volume knob, and the pickguard is going to be an old circular saw blade. I'm going to set it into the wood so as not to rip my fingers up everytime I play the damn thing, haha. I'm going to go with one humbucker (any suggestions as to what?). For wood, I'm going to use the black walnut I got from my school for the body and I'm going to try to use the walnut my Kentucky friend gave me as the neck (probably going to laminate). I'm going to use my Ebay maple for the top. Oh, and I forgot to mention, I bought a very thick rosewood fretboard blank in a Knetucky music store while i was there. For $12.00 I couldn't let it go. I'm going to do a pretty intense radius with that. Not sure what kind of bridge to use. Edited August 5, 2008 by the telecaster kid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the telecaster kid Posted August 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2008 (edited) Here's a quick MS Paint render. Edited August 5, 2008 by the telecaster kid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 (edited) I'm going to do a pretty intense radius with that. Not sure what kind of bridge to use. The radius and the bridge are the same question! Don't do a 4" radius and get a 12" radius TOM! With nine strings and an intense radius, you might want individual string bridges, if they make those for guitar... then you could make "radius steps" on which to mount them. I still think you need to hear from one of the experts here before you use that walnut for a neck. Edited August 6, 2008 by Geo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted August 6, 2008 Report Share Posted August 6, 2008 What is the size of that branch(diameter and length)? I am having a little trouble figuring out how you will be cutting it for a neck or body. The end checks are pretty normal, but you need to cut them away to get to clean wood. As Erik pointed out you have some pith there, and you need to work around that. I am assuming this is a pretty old branch that has dried for quite some time? Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpm99 Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 I'm going to do a pretty intense radius with that. Not sure what kind of bridge to use. I don't understand why you'd want to do a profound radius with nine strings. Are you going to mostly be playing rhythm guitar on it or something? Too much radius means you fret out on solos, which is SO frustrating. Then again, there are a lot of things I don't understand. Maybe I'm missing something. All in all, I hope this project works out. If you can make it work, it should be really cool. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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